Usefulness of complement activation products in Chinese patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

CER6576
2014 Vol.32, N°1
PI 0048, PF 0053
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PMID: 23981509 [PubMed]

Received: 26/04/2013
Accepted : 24/07/2013
In Press: 26/08/2013
Published: 10/02/2014

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
To evaluate the roles of complement activation products C3d and C4d binding to lymphocytes in the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a Chinese cohort of patients.
METHODS:
96 patients with SLE, 44 patients with other autoimmune disease and 40 healthy control individuals were enrolled in this study. The levels of C3d and C4d binding to peripheral CD4+ T and CD19+ B lymphocyts (designated as T-C3d, T-C4d, B-C3d, B-C4d ) was assessed by flow cytometry. The diagnostic values of these biomarkers were determined by receiver-operator characteristic analysis.
RESULTS:
The levels of T-C3d, T-C4d, B-C3d, B-C4d were significantly higher in SLE patients than patients with other disease and healthy controls (p<0.01). As diagnostic tools, T-C4d and B-C4d were 61.1% sensitive/94.3% specific and 63.9% sensitive/94.3% specific in differentiating SLE patients from patients with other disease and healthy controls, respectively. T-C4d and B-C4d were significantly associated with SLE disease activity as measured by the SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) (p<0.001), low serum C3 (p<0.001), low serum C4 (p=0.006), anti-dsDNA (IIF) (p=0.001), and anti-dsDNA (ELISA) (p=0.001).
CONCLUSIONS:
Complement activation products C3d and C4d binding to lymphocytes can reflect the disease activity of SLE and can be used as biomarkers for SLE.